BIKE Magazine:
"You can sense it in the air: There’s an urge among pioneering U.S. brands to bring their manufacturing back home. That used to be what set these iconic names apart from the rest."
I'd love to see this. I've liked supporting Turner Bikes in the past in part because their frames were made in the US, and I'd love to see bike manufacturers be able to bring that work back on-shore. It's a toe in the water, but congrats to Ibis for taking the first step.
"Ibis Takes a 'Small' step toward U.S. carbon production"
www.bikemag.com
I'm just catching up on a bunch of news that happened while I was on vacation, so I'm a bit late on this.
"I think Microsoft has now finally nailed the ideal tablet-laptop hybrid hardware at a more attractive price — after years of trying. Surface Go feels like it’s ready to take the Surface concept mainstream, and it’s a lesson for both Apple and Samsung’s tablet + laptop efforts."
This seems like a big point to me, as an Apple user. I'm not going to buy a Surface Go since it doesn't run macOS, but I'm increasingly impressed with the iterations that Microsoft has put the Surface concept through over the past few years. It feels like they're placing a lot of energy behind their hardware and things are starting to click. I wish that Apple were acting less like their hardware is already at its pinnacle and more like they were hungry to make great machines like Microsoft seems to be.
The Surface Go is Microsoft’s hybrid PC dream made real
It’s time to think of Surface as Surface
www.theverge.com
“Mr. Jones is trying to have the Pozner and Fontaine cases dismissed under the Texas Citizens Participation Act, which protects citizens’ right to free speech against plaintiffs who aim to silence them through costly litigation. Mr. Jones is seeking more than $100,000 in court costs from the Pozner family.“
Alex Jones is a piece of human garbage.
Alex Jones, Pursued Over Infowars Falsehoods, Faces a Legal Crossroads (Published 2018)
The Infowars founder is seeking the dismissal of a bellwether defamation lawsuit this week, as social media platforms take steps to curb him.
www.nytimes.com
Not much of a trailer, and the mask looks cheesy, IMO. I hope it’s better than season one, but I didn’t see anything here that makes me think it will be.
A new teaser for Netflix’s Iron Fist teases an iconic costume
The season debuts in September
www.theverge.com
I find this a bit disappointing. While I understand the benefits of moving the web towards ubiquitous encrypted transport, plain HTTP is the lingua franca of the web. Regardless of how easy it's become to obtain a certificate---I did this earlier this year on this site---it's another barrier to putting up a site. Besides, Google's warning will scare some inexperienced users, who might interpret "not secure" to mean that they're on a dangerous site, perhaps one with some kind of malware. I think this is probably a step too far.
I've been using Firefox lately, for the first time in many years. Its new engine is quite fast, and I've been enjoying my time with it. I made it my primary browser a few weeks ago, and so far it's stuck. I'll post more about my thoughts on Firefox later, but it's also a nice benefit that its users aren't being subjected to "not secure" warnings for sites that haven't adopted HTTPS.
A milestone for Chrome security: marking HTTP as “not secure”
We're marking all sites that are not encrypted with HTTPS as “not secure”.
www.blog.google
Anson Mount looks promising as Captain Pike. I'm still a little sad that they are bringing Discovery closer to the characters in the original Star Trek series, rather than letting it forge its own story, but this trailer is pretty good. I'm certainly going to re-subscribe to watch it.
New showrunner Alex Kurtzman announced that there will also be an anthology of short episodes, called "Short Treks".
First Look Trailer | Star Trek: Discovery - Season 2 | StarTrek.com
www.youtube.com
I'm glad to see map applications taking vehicles other than cars into account. I both tow a trailer on occasion, as well as commute to work on a motorcycle, and neither of those is covered well by today's map apps. Waze added a motorcycle mode, which was appreciated. Hopefully other app makers work to add these other types of vehicle traffic too.
Google Maps expands motorcycle mode to Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and other Asian markets
Motorcycles are very popular in Southeast Asia
www.theverge.com
Nikon has discontinued the Nikon 1 line, according to Nikon Rumors. It's too bad that Nikon didn't keep iterating and innovating in this line. I bought the Nikon 1 V1 early on, and really enjoyed shooting with it. I used it for some time, and shot a few favorite images with it. I wrote about it quite a bit here.
Anyway, I had a good time with it. The rumor mill suggests that this is clearing the way for a new line of Nikon mirrorless. I hope that whatever Nikon follows it up with is both more successful and follows up on some of the early energy and promise that the 1-series had.
"Past moments that seemed decisive, like the “Access Hollywood” tape and Charlottesville, came and went. For now at least, hurling the treason charge seems more about making a point than making a case in a courtroom or impeachment hearing."
Indeed. Time for action, not hollow words.
For Republicans, ‘The Dam Has Broken.’ But for How Long? (Published 2018)
Never in the modern era has a president engendered such a wave of discussion about whether his real loyalty was to a foreign power over his own country.
www.nytimes.com
